A Key by any other name
by Nodakskip
Summary: Another Key


Title: A Key by any other name

Author: Nodakskip

Email: As they say, it's the coin of the realm. So please tell me what you thought of it.

Acknowledgments: Thanks to Theo for beta'ing this fanfic.

Category: AU, Angst, Romance

Disclaimer: None of the Buffy and Angel references belong to me, but rather Joss and his gang of idi...er, geniuses. So please don't sue; besides I have nothing worth obtaining.

Rating: PG-13

Summary: A different Key.

---

The Magic Box, Sunnydale, California

Tuesday January 9th, 2001

3:55 pm

"You...you have to be wrong."

Buffy looked straight at her friend. "I'm not. I mean, I didn't want to believe it either at first..."

"NO!" Willow yelled as she jumped up from the round table. "You're wrong! You have to be!"

"I'm afraid not, Willow," Giles said firmly but with sympathy. "The tirer la couture spell clearly indicated-"

"This is bullshit!"

Buffy looked to the brunette who'd made the outburst. "Cordelia, we didn't just make this up. Believe me, that's the last thing we can afford to do now!"

The young woman just crossed her arms and looked at the Slayer with a great deal of annoyance. "Xander is not this Key thing. Are you even hearing yourself, Buffy?" She shook her head. "You're sitting there saying that Xander Harris is some weird ball of energy thousands of years old? That's just complete and utter crap!"

"Well, actually, it's possible..." Anya the former vengeance demon said from her seat. "I mean, human memories aren't really that hard to mess with. For Yekk's sake, I did it all the time back when I was Anyanka."

Willow walked over to the counter and just gripped the rail hard. She really wished Tara was here right now, but her life partner was currently out of town for a coven meeting in Los Angeles. "This is not possible...it just isn't."

Cordelia still didn't believe a word of it either. "Xander?" she demanded. "MY Xander? The guy who I share a penthouse with...that I sleep next to every night? You're telling me that he's only been around for the last six months?"

"Five months, actually," Giles clarified.

"Oh, that's way different!" the brunette said sarcastically. "If it's FIVE months, then it's entirely believable." She leaned toward the Watcher. "If he's only been around...let alone human for less than half a year...then who the hell did I make out with in Buffy's basement, when Norman the Bug Man came calling!?"

"Maybe no one," Anya told her. "If this is all true, and Harris was never around before August last year...all your memories would have had to have been adjusted to make room for him properly. Which includes your recollection of that event."

"But he's the one I drove over there for," Cordelia said hotly. "Why the hell would I have gone over to Buffy's house to look for her, if Xander wasn't with me? At the time, I didn't give a damn about her or the rest of her tweak-o friends!"

"Hey!" Buffy and Willow said in indignation.

The former demon just shrugged. "Maybe you never went over there at all? After all, it's impossible to tell at this point. You should know that the past only exists in memory, and there's no telling just what those monks might have been able to pull off - assuming that this guy really is the Key, of course."

Willow came back over to the table while wiping a few tears away. "If Xander's not real...then who the heck did I grow up with? Who did the Snoopy dance for me every year? Who defended me against Cordelia and all the rest of her friends during high school...?"

"Again, no one," Anya cut her off impatiently. "Look. Magic isn't an exact science, or even a science at all. But I've seen alternate realities before. When I was a demon, when that idiot child Harmony summoned me during your senior year, I created an entire world of misery and pain. Just one event gets changed, and the ripple effect acts like a tidal wave on the seashore. That's where that alternate vampire version of Willow came from, after all...when I granted that Wish to the dumb blonde, it changed the entire face of this reality."

"Be that as it may," Giles said before anyone could reply to Anya about all that. "As distressing as this news is for all of you, I'm afraid there can be no doubt about it. Mr. Harris is the Key, and that's the cold hard truth of the matter."

Cordelia just snorted while Willow shook her head. "No. No, no, no! I still can't believe that Xander and all our memories of him are just fakes. Not just on some dying monk's word, and that spell you cast!"

"Why would he have lied to me?" Buffy asked her best friend, ignoring the implication about her ability to do magic correctly.

"That's the easy part," Cordelia said firmly. "If you found this Key thing, then Glory could take it off of you. And they don't want anyone to find it. It makes no sense to put the damn thing in the same town that Glory's in, does it?"

"Uh, I thought it wasn't like that," Willow said hesitantly. "Didn't Buffy mention that they sent the Key to the Slayer for protection? They made him to be her best male friend, someone she would die for? Then Glory came here looking for her Key."

"That, that is in essence what the monk said, apparently," Giles sighed. "But we can't be sure of anything."

"There might be a way around that," Anya suddenly told the group thoughtfully.

---

Sunnydale High School, Sunnydale, California

Tuesday May 21st, 1999

4:45 pm

"I must say you did very well, considering," Giles told his charge.

"Thanks, I guess," Faith said as she sighed. "Man, do I need a smoke."

As the brunette Slayer took out the pack from her back pocket, Giles gave her a Look. "What? Screw it G, we just blew up a goddamn snake-mayor in the high school...I need to let off some steam!"

"Very well," the Watcher said with a sigh. "I must say though, Kendra's methods of 'letting off steam' were far healthier than yours. So were Buffy's, God rest her soul...at least promise me you won't do again what you did last year?"

Faith held up her hands. "No worries G, besides - that guy graduated last year, remember?"

"Mr. Giles!?"

Both Slayer and Watcher turned to see the woman coming over. "Mrs. Mitchelson?"

"What in the world happened here?" the school board member demanded.

"A, a gas leak," Giles answered quickly. "Tragic, it's just utterly tragic what's happened..."

"This damn school," Mrs. Mitchelson said to herself, before she saw Faith. She grabbed the cigarette from her mouth and stomped it out. "Are you insane, young lady?!"

"Hey!" Faith growled out, upset.

"Didn't you hear what he just said? There's a gas leak!" the older woman told her. "At least try to act like you have a brain!"

"Why, you..." Faith hissed as she advanced on the woman.

"Not now, Faith," Giles said, stopping her. "Why don't you go check on the others?"

"Fine," Miss LeHane replied, still upset as she stalked away. A few minutes later, the dark-haired Slayer found her team. "Hey. I see you guys all made it."

"If you can call it that," Willow said meekly.

Oz rubbed her shoulder. "Guys, take a moment to deal with this...we survived high school."

"Not all of us, though."

Faith turned to see her part-social enemy, part-reluctant ally. "C, you okay?"

"Harmony's dead," Cordelia told her bluntly. "A vampire got her."

Faith shrugged. "Sorry."

"Don't be," Cordelia said to that. "I'm sure as hell not going to lose any sleep over it."

"Kind of harsh," Oz said to her.

Now it was Cordelia's time to shrug. "Like I was planning to ever see her again after today?"

"Still a major bitch at heart, huh Cordy?" Amy Madison said from her spot.

"Like I care what the hell any of you peons think of me," Cordelia said acidly to that. "Now in a few months, I'm going to start attending a nice Ivy League college on the East Coast...so if any of you happen to feel the urge to ever talk to me again? Please don't."

"Stuck-up shrew," Amy said venomously, as they watched Cordelia leave.

"Nice ass, though," Faith commented as she also watched the queen of the high school elite leave. "And we couldn't have pulled this off without her, she got just about every kid in the school to join in on the fun. Guess Cordelia just needs to find some guy to give it to her but good...that always loosens girls like her up!"

---

The Magic Box, Sunnydale, California

Tuesday January 9th, 2001

4:24 pm

Buffy, Willow and Cordelia all screamed, the moment the spell ended. Giles just grunted, while Anya looked jubilant. "I knew it! I knew it! Eryishon, you rock!"

"Oh dear God," Willow stuttered, now a true believer. "I never...how is this possible?"

"I'm supposed to be dead right now," Buffy whispered, about to faint. She'd all but forgotten how Xander had saved her life that day, by giving her CPR. "Giles...am I real? Or am I just some sort of living ghost?"

"I, I don't know," the Watcher looked flabbergasted. Then he pulled himself together. "Um, i-if the monks' spell really did alter reality to the degree we just witnessed...then I'd say you were dead, and then you came back to life again five months ago..."

This is too freaky for me to deal with right now! Buffy knew she had to focus on something else. "And Angel never lost his soul? Oh God, everything that happened with Angelus really was all my fault..."

"I was sorta friends with FAITH?" Cordelia typically focused initially on herself. "What, was I completely nuts?"

"It seems that, uh, our memories of her might have been, well...terribly distorted by those monks," Giles looked embarrassed to admit it.

"Is Faith even in prison right now? Or is all that just something they cooked up as well?" Willow looked officially freaked, just like her best friend.

"Well, I can make inquiries-" the Watcher started to say.

"Hey, can we focus for a second?" Anya interrupted. "The fact is, we now know for sure thanks to that little spell that Harris is indeed the Key. So, what the hell do we do next?"

---

Chase Penthouse, Sunnydale, California

Tuesday January 9th, 2001

6:03 pm

Cordelia sat alone in her home, thinking about the bombshell she'd learned about just a few hours ago.

It was just too bizarre, way too out there for her to get any firm grip on it. After all, if you can't trust your own memories, what the hell can you really believe in? Apart from death and taxes, of course.

It was impossible to accept that everything before last August was just a fake memory implant. Her feelings for her boyfriend were too intense. Too raw. Too...well, you name it, she felt it. It was the big L-word territory, and so to discover your honey was actually a big blob of green energy sucked big-time.

Hang on, if the senior year I remember is just a fake...why the HELL did those asshole monks come up with the idea of Xander cheating on me!? Cordelia suddenly asked herself. What, they thought it would be amusing to do something like that to me? And I can still remember that rebar hurting like hell as well. God, if they weren't all dead, I'd kill 'em myself for that!

Her angry mental tirade was cut short by a new voice in the room...her own.

"Don't blame them for that."

"What?!" Cordelia demanded as she looked around. "Who said that?"

"I did."

Cordelia jumped up and looked behind her, as a new person came into the living room. "Or rather, technically, you did."

"Well, this is...weird," Cordelia said as the other female figure came into view.

"For you, sure," the older version of Cordelia Chase replied. "But for me, not so much." She walked by her younger self and sat in the next chair. "I'm guessing you have a few questions. Like who the hell am I?"

Younger Cordelia just nodded as she sat down...and scooted her chair a tiny bit away from...herself.

The older Cordelia smirked at her before saying, "I'm what you might call one of the Powers That Be." She held up her hand to save the normal question. "I'm the Cordelia Chase from another dimension...or at least, I was. Basically, my life was manipulated by another Power. She used me like a pawn and after my body died, the other Powers didn't exactly know what to do with me. So they kind of stuck me in...well, I don't think you could understand where I sort of live now, but that's not important."

She kept going, "What is important is that while the higher-ups are deciding what to do with me, I'm helping out in some other dimensions. Yours included. See, I'm the one who had the monks change the Key into Xander."

"You?" Cordelia asked the older woman. "You just created him out of that damn-"

"No," Older Cordelia cut her off. "Try to understand, most things are different in most dimensions. There are some worlds where the Nazis won World War Two, and others where the Nazis never even came to power. One where we never developed the atomic bomb, and World War Two lasted another five years. There's even a world where there are no vampires, demons or magic..."

The higher Power gathered herself and said, "But the thing is you see, in my dimension my human life really did have Xander Harris in it. All the childhood and high school memories you have of him...they're real, insofar as they're actually mine. The making out in the closets, fighting demons, him cheating with Willow, and that rebar gutting me. All of that happened to me, once upon a time."

"So you gave all that to me because..." Cordelia asked, not sure if she was dreaming or not. After all this was Sunnydale.

Her older self sighed. "As I said. I was used like a tool by that bitch in my world, nothing more. Sure I had a life, some loves and friends. But it was all for some stupid Power That Be's master plan to take over the world. I never even lived to see my 24th birthday." She reached over and grabbed a framed picture of this world's Xander and Cordelia. "I saw that in this world you never got put through the wringer like I did, and that was good. Except you didn't have Xander at all."

"So you did what?" Younger Cordelia asked her. "You just decided to give me your boyfriend as a consolation prize?"

Older Cordelia gave her a sad look. "Well, I thought it was better than what happened to you in the original timeline, before the spell. Let's just say that Buffy isn't the only one that should be dead right now."

Younger Cordelia instantly got it, and her face went as pale as a vampire's. "Please tell me that was a bad joke."

The older her shook her head. "You know how we are, there's a reason why Xander used to call us 'Tact Girl'. And bad jokes are one thing, but I wouldn't mess with you about something like that. Believe me, East Coast college girl or not - you never lived to see your 24th birthday either." She put the picture back down. "Someday my friends, Xander included will join me in the realm of the dead, or whatever you want to call it. But for now, I like to help things along in places where I can."

Before the younger Cordelia could respond to that, her older self suddenly looked towards the door. "Your boyfriend's home, so take my advice. Be good to one another...like I never got the chance to."

Cordelia looked towards the door and then back to the other chair...only to find it empty.

"Hey, beautiful," Xander Harris said as he came through the front door.

"Xan...Xander." Cordelia said as she got up, her mind trying to decide what to do.

"You okay?" Harris asked her as he set down his yellow hard hat.

"Ah, yeah," she told him. "We...we, ah, found something out today..."

"Something bad?" Xander asked as he took off his boots.

"Could be," Cordy muttered as she came over to him.

"Okey-dokey," Xander replied as he set his footwear by the door. "I'll go take a shower, and we can head over to-"

"No," Cordelia stopped him mid-sentence. Making her mind up after everything she'd learned today, the Chase woman ran her hand over his bare arm. "It's okay. In fact, right now it doesn't really matter. Look, why don't we take some 'us' time? You know how the sweaty construction worker look gets me all excited."

Xander looked at her, mildly surprised. "Can't believe I'm saying this, babe, but I'm already sore all over after-"

"That's fine," Cordelia told him as she started to drag Xander to the bedroom. "I'll give you a massage too."

Most men with a young, hot woman wanting to have sex and give them a massage would consider all that a no-brainer. But Xander Harris had been in this relationship long enough to know something was up. "You want something."

"Hell, yeah," his girlfriend told him, finally sounding like herself again. "To have some fun with my boyfriend tonight. And to show you just how happy I am to have you in my life."

---

The Magic Box, Sunnydale, California

Wednesday January 10th, 2001

9:35 am

"You did what last night?" Buffy demanded as she looked at her friend. "You told him?"

Cordelia looked at her, somewhat amused. "So the part where some weird older version of me appears out of nowhere, talks to me and then vanishes went like straight over your head?"

Glad that Anya had the day off and that the tactless comments from her direction at least would not be forthcoming, Giles spoke up. "Yes, that must be looked into of course, but telling Xander that he's the Key could..."

"He deserves to know," Cordelia bluntly told the older man. "Giles, after we finally settled the fluke thing Xander and I decided not to keep important things like that from each other, ever again. It was one of the terms under which we got back together. And before anyone says anything I don't care if that's just a fake memory, it's what I remember so it's also what I'm living by."

"But to tell him he's not real and some sort of Key energy?" Buffy said, still unhappy. She looked to Willow for support. "Do you believe this?"

However, the redhead had something else on her mind. "You had sex with him before you told him? Cordy, you and Xander have sex way too much. I swear, every story I hear from you two these days has some sort of sex in it!"

"We're very physical people," Cordelia said with a shrug. "Besides he's at his sexual peak right now, and a girl has to take advantage of that. Use it or lose it, you know."

Buffy jumped between them. "Getting back on topic. YOU TOLD HIM?!"

"Not the entire story, alright?" Cordelia replied, annoyed at the Slayer.

"Ah," Giles muttered, a little relieved. "What exactly did you tell Xander, then?"

Cordelia rolled her eyes. "I told him that the monks hid that Key thing inside him because they knew Buffy would guard it with her life, in order to keep Xander safe. So he knows the basics, it's just he has no idea that he's only a few months old as a human."

Giles thought this over. "Still, with him knowing he's the Key that Glory's looking for..."

"Oh, come on!" Cordelia sighed. "Be serious for a moment. He's not going to go advertising it to that skank, is he?!"

"But still..." Giles started but was cut off by Ms. Chase.

"Okay, listen up," Cordelia told them all. "If my boyfriend had somehow found out he was the Key some other way, then he would also know that he's not exactly real. And Xander's all the real to me he needs to be. So this is all for the best - I mean, don't tell me Spike wouldn't have loved to use this to his own advantage somehow! This way, Xander just thinks it's like a possession or something." She looked to all of them. "He will never find out the whole truth, we all make a pact right now never to tell him. Understand?"

Willow was the first to agree. "Alright, we don't tell him. But we should keep him safe."

"Fine. Just keep him safe without making feel him unwanted," Cordelia pointed out. "And don't argue with me, because you know damn well how touchy Xander gets about that."

Buffy sighed. "We all do, remember how pissed he was back in senior year for a while?"

"Could your father send him to work in LA till we've taken care of Glory, perhaps?" Giles wondered. "Xander does work for his company, after all."

"Hey, yeah!" Buffy said to that. "Angel can watch over him!"

"Oh sure. Like he'd hang with your vampire ex for long without seriously trying to dust him," Cordelia scowled. "Buffy, especially where you're concerned, they hate each other. Always have, always will. Remember? Or did those monks screw up that part of it in your bottle-blonde head?"

The brunette mulled it over, ignoring Buffy's growl. "My mom's designer friend has been hounding me to be a catwalk model in her fashion show in LA. I guess I can use that as an excuse."

Willow picked up the tone in her voice. "You don't want to be a model?"

"It's Victoria's Secret," Cordelia admitted. "I've done some modeling before, but not in lingerie."

Willow laughed. "Trust me, Xander will love it!"

"Big no duh there," Cordelia agreed. "I suppose it couldn't hurt my career either. Some big-name people go to those things." Making up her mind, the woman pulled out her cell phone. "I've got a few calls to make. You guys, start looking up ways we can get rid of the evil bitch in heels!"

---

Another plane of existence

The same time

The older Cordelia that had used her powers to incarnate Xander Harris as the Key, watched the other version of herself with a grin. "Knew she would make the right call."

The higher being then waved her hand over the viewing globe, and began again the task of scanning for other-dimensional versions of her and her friends' lives. "Let's try one of the LA people today..."

TBC?


End file.
